Fr. Frank Pavone announced Tuesday the founding of a pro-life community of priests.
March 23, 2005, Amarillo, Texas. Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, officially announced today that he is founding a pro-life community dedicated to the formation and training of priests, deacons, brothers and seminarians who will devote themselves fully to the proclamation of the Gospel of Life. This initiative will be based in the diocese of Amarillo, Texas, under the authority and stewardship of Bishop John W. Yanta.
"It has been a dream of mine for over a decade to form a community that can accept seminarians who want to devote their entire ministry to the defense of the unborn," said Fr. Pavone. "While there are religious communities that give special emphasis to the right to life, the Church has no ‘institutional’ society of men whose exclusive focus is to protect innocent human life from the tragedy of abortion and euthanasia. It is time for such a community. I am grateful to Bishop Yanta for allowing me the opportunity to make this dream a reality."
See also this summary page describing the society's background and its charism.
Should the establishment of such a community be in accord with the will of the Church, its mission would be threefold:
1. To bear public witness, in every sector of society, to the sanctity of each human life, and to defend human life against the onslaught of abortion, euthanasia, and genetic manipulation.
2. To minister to the entire pro-life movement by offering spiritual support, guidance, solid teaching and direction.
3. To provide ongoing education and motivation for the clergy, helping them to network with each other and equipping them with the very best resources to preach, teach, counsel, and organize their people for pro-life activities.
These goals would be accomplished by traveling into local communities and parishes, and by doing extensive media work.
We have accomplished a great deal in all these areas just with four full-time priests on the Priests for Life staff. Imagine what could happen with forty or four-hundred!
Father Pavone also envisions a lay branch to give informational and spiritual support for all the many pro-life workers in the trenches.
What a great gift to the Church and to the world!
Well I think that Mr. Pavone should be stepping in front of the tanks in Iraq and preventing them from killing Iraqis rather than messing with women's bodies as he proposes. I don't believe these fanatics are probirth. They don't care about life.
Terri Schiavo suffered for years because of morons like Pavone. She didn't have a life.
Pavone would do better by getting the Republican Death Dealers out of office rather than screwing with women's bodies and keeping vegetative humans alive.
Since you refused to give your rant any sort of coherency, I'll take the liberty of dealing with it out of order.
Terri Schiavo suffered for years because of morons like Pavone. She didn't have a life.
Thanks for the detailed medical diagnosis, it's good to know that there are people out there taking the time to study up and become educated on today's pressing issues. How much time did you spend with Terri? Perhaps she would have had a life if she hadn't been dumped in a hole where her adulterous husband made sure she received substandard care.
[blah blah blah] ...keeping vegetative humans alive
As for the recently deceased about whom you speak so kindly, you raise an interesting point: I didn't realize vegetables could suffer; I'll never slice a carrot the same way again. Or maybe she was suffering preceisely because she was not a vegetable. Or maybe nobody knew and they just starved her death because her husband said so.
I think that Mr. Pavone should be stepping in front of the tanks in Iraq and preventing them from killing Iraqis.
What a great idea! I take it, then, that you're just back from playing "chicken" with Abrams tanks in Mosul. Way to go! If you noticed, no where on this blog do I endorse the Iraq war. But however wrongheaded our invasion of Iraq may have been, far more important is the prevalence of a culture that values only certain classes of life.
rather than messing with women's bodies as he proposes.
Ironically, you have your facts bass-ackwards. It seems to me like you think abortion is not "messing with women's bodies." The pro-life position is precisely that women's bodies should not be messed with, that they should be allowed to take the natural course and deliver their babies, the healthiest option, which is also the healthiest and only morally allowable option for the fully human unborn child being carried.
I don't believe these fanatics are probirth. They don't care about life.
Probirth? What is that? Is that a new euphemism for pro-life? Do you mean to say we're not pro-unborn child. Of what, then, do you think we are in favor?
Thank you for your contributions here. I hope you're thankful that you have the physical ability to communicate your ill-formed opinions.
Way to go,Chris!
RE: Comments by Michael Sabo:
It's Reverand Pavone or Father Pavone, not Mr. Pavone.
Saddam, Uday and Qusay Hussein were killing Iraqis (and others) by the thousands before the arrival of US and other countries troops. Maybe Mr. Sabo thinks that this modern day Adolf Hitler should have been allowed to continue his slaughter instead of being interrupted by Coalition Forces.
Mr. Sabo got the adulterous husband part right about Michael Schiavo. Terri Schiavo was a victim of her husbands desire to have her die as he lived in sin with his mistress. I don't see how Father Pavone could have helped her if President Bush, Governor Bush, Congress, the Reverend Jesse Jackson and others, including Mel Gibson, couldn't help her. Judge Greer decided she should die, and the spineless judiciary, hiding behind "The Law", agreed with him.
"Screwing with womens bodies?" Have you ever read the horror stories and examined the statistics concerning women who have had abortions? The suicide rates? The shattered lives after Planned Parenthood collects their blood money, tells the woman everything will be alright and then walks away?
"Keeping vegetative humans alive." Well., Mr. Sabo, I pity you because you do not believe in miracles and lack any kind of hope and belief in mankind at all, don't you? May God have mercy on you.
As an elderly American with a family history of stroke, I am terrified by Father Frank Pavone. His agenda seems to be to force Catholic teachings onto all American citizens. I am not a Catholic. During the Schiavo case, when Pavone was seldom out of camera range, he made clear his syllogism: withdrawal of sustenance equals euthanasia equals murder. Now in Amarillo he will pursue further adventures as he establishes the first Catholic society devoted entirely to political activism. My nightmare scenario is that he succeeds in getting Catholic doctrine into federal statute and that some day I will be forced to linger for months in a state worse than death because the decision to release me will no longer rest with my physicians and family. Pavone's arrogant quest for power and control places the American people in peril.
Calling the new order "the first Catholic society devoted entirely to political activism" is a gross distortion of the truth.
The Church has a position and believes strongly in it. It is the Church's duty according Her own laws to proclaim what it believes to be the truth. Individuals are free to accept or reject these teachings. If a majority of people accept the teachings and enact them as law, that is their choice, and will be a result of the teachings being heeded, not "forced" onto anyone.
Nobody will ever force you to linger if death is at your door, but to equate starving yourself to death with being allowed to die when it's your time is simply invalid reasoning.
And don't worry, there will always be unscrupulous physicians who do not accept the "do no harm" maxim that will allow you to off yourself if that is your decision. You will probably never have to deal with the "peril" of having your life cherished and preserved.
Talk about an oxymoron.